Operation modes for sidelink relay

ABSTRACT

This disclosure relates to a relay node, and a method of wireless communications by the relay node, including attempting to decode a plurality of first transport block portions of a transport block, wherein the plurality of first transport block portions are received on a first link according to a first encoding configuration. The aspects further include encoding successfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport block portions according to a second encoding configuration to define one or more second transport block portions corresponding to the transport block, wherein the second encoding configuration is different from the first encoding configuration. And, the aspects further include transmitting the one or more second transport block portions on a second link and according to the second encoding configuration. Other aspects of the relay node and a receiver node are also disclosed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 62/882,299, entitled “OPERATION MODES FOR SIDELINK RELAY” and filedon Aug. 2, 2019, which is expressly incorporated by reference herein inits entirety.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, andmore particularly, to operation modes for sidelink relay.

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide varioustelecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging,and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employmultiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication withmultiple users by sharing available system resources. Examples of suchmultiple-access technologies include code division multiple access(CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequencydivision multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency divisionmultiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency divisionmultiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous codedivision multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.

These multiple access technologies have been adopted in varioustelecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enablesdifferent wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national,regional, and even global level. An example telecommunication standardis 5G New Radio (NR). 5G NR is part of a continuous mobile broadbandevolution promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) tomeet new requirements associated with latency, reliability, security,scalability (e.g., with Internet of Things (IoT)), and otherrequirements. 5G NR includes services associated with enhanced mobilebroadband (eMBB), massive machine type communications (mMTC), and ultrareliable low latency communications (URLLC). Some aspects of 5G NR maybe based on the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. There exists aneed for further improvements in 5G NR technology. These improvementsmay also be applicable to other multi-access technologies and thetelecommunication standards that employ these technologies.

Some wireless communication networks include device-to-device (D2D)communication such as, but not limited to, vehicle-based communicationdevices that can communicate from vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V),vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) (e.g., from the vehicle-basedcommunication device to road infrastructure nodes), vehicle-to-network(V2N) (e.g., from the vehicle-based communication device to one or morenetwork nodes, such as a base station), a combination thereof and/orwith other devices, which can be collectively referred to asvehicle-to-anything (V2X) communications. Further improvements inmultiple-access and D2D technologies are desired.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects inorder to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary isnot an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, and is intendedto neither identify key or critical elements of all aspects nordelineate the scope of any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is topresent some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as aprelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

According to an example, a method of wireless communication by the relaynode, including attempting to decode a plurality of first transportblock portions of a transport block, wherein the plurality of firsttransport block portions are received on a first link according to afirst encoding configuration. The aspects further include encodingsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions according to a second encoding configuration to define one ormore second transport block portions corresponding to the transportblock, wherein the second encoding configuration is different from thefirst encoding configuration. And, the aspects further includetransmitting the one or more second transport block portions on a secondlink and according to the second encoding configuration.

In a further aspect, the present disclosure includes an apparatus forwireless communication including a memory and at least one processorcoupled to the memory. The at least one processor may be configured toattempt to decode a plurality of first transport block portions of atransport block, wherein the plurality of first transport block portionsare received on a first link according to a first encodingconfiguration. The at least one processor may be configured to encodesuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions according to a second encoding configuration to define one ormore second transport block portions corresponding to the transportblock, wherein the second encoding configuration is different from thefirst encoding configuration. The at least one processor may beconfigured to transmit the one or more second transport block portionson a second link and according to the second encoding configuration.

In an additional aspect, the present disclosure includes an apparatusfor wireless communication including means for attempting to decode aplurality of first transport block portions of a transport block,wherein the plurality of first transport block portions are received ona first link according to a first encoding configuration, means forencoding successfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transportblock portions according to a second encoding configuration to defineone or more second transport block portions corresponding to thetransport block, wherein the second encoding configuration is differentfrom the first encoding configuration, and, means for transmitting theone or more second transport block portions on a second link andaccording to the second encoding configuration.

In yet another aspect, the present disclosure includes acomputer-readable medium storing computer executable code, the code whenexecuted by a processor cause the processor to attempt to decode aplurality of first transport block portions of a transport block,wherein the plurality of first transport block portions are received ona first link according to a first encoding configuration, encodesuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions according to a second encoding configuration to define one ormore second transport block portions corresponding to the transportblock, wherein the second encoding configuration is different from thefirst encoding configuration, and, transmit the one or more secondtransport block portions on a second link and according to the secondencoding configuration.

In another example, a method for wireless communication includes by arelay node includes attempting, at the relay node, to decode a pluralityof first transport block portions of a transport block, wherein theplurality of first transport block portions are received on a first linkin allocated resources according to a first encoding configuration. Themethod further includes encoding, at the relay node, successfullydecoded ones of the plurality of first transport block portionsaccording to a second encoding configuration to define one or moresecond transport block portions, wherein the second encodingconfiguration is a same configuration as the first encodingconfiguration. The method also includes mapping, at the relay node, theone or more second transport block portions to the resource allocation,and replacing, at the relay node, unsuccessfully decoded ones of theplurality of first transport block portions with blank resources in theresource allocation. Additionally, the method includes transmitting,from the relay node, the one or more second transport block portions ona second link according to the resource allocation.

In a further aspect, the present disclosure includes an apparatus forwireless communication including a memory and at least one processorcoupled to the memory. The at least one processor may be configured toattempt, at the relay node, to decode a plurality of first transportblock portions of a transport block, wherein the plurality of firsttransport block portions are received on a first link in allocatedresources according to a first encoding configuration. The at least oneprocessor is further configured to encode, at the relay node,successfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions according to a second encoding configuration to define one ormore second transport block portions, wherein the second encodingconfiguration is a same configuration as the first encodingconfiguration. The at least one processor may be configured to map, atthe relay node, the one or more second transport block portions to theresource allocation, and replace, at the relay node, unsuccessfullydecoded ones of the plurality of first transport block portions withblank resources in the resource allocation. The at least one processormay be configured to transmit, from the relay node, the one or moresecond transport block portions on a second link according to theresource allocation.

In an additional aspect, the present disclosure includes an apparatusfor wireless communication including means for attempting, at the relaynode, to decode a plurality of first transport block portions of atransport block, wherein the plurality of first transport block portionsare received on a first link in allocated resources according to a firstencoding configuration. The apparatus further includes means forencoding, at the relay node, successfully decoded ones of the pluralityof first transport block portions according to a second encodingconfiguration to define one or more second transport block portions,wherein the second encoding configuration is a same configuration as thefirst encoding configuration. The apparatus also includes means formapping, at the relay node, the one or more second transport blockportions to the resource allocation, and replacing, at the relay node,unsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions with blank resources in the resource allocation. Additionally,the apparatus includes means for transmitting, from the relay node, theone or more second transport block portions on a second link accordingto the resource allocation.

In yet another aspect, the present disclosure includes acomputer-readable medium storing computer executable code, the code whenexecuted by a processor cause the processor to attempt, at the relaynode, to decode a plurality of first transport block portions of atransport block, wherein the plurality of first transport block portionsare received on a first link in allocated resources according to a firstencoding configuration; encode, at the relay node, successfully decodedones of the plurality of first transport block portions according to asecond encoding configuration to define one or more second transportblock portions, wherein the second encoding configuration is a sameconfiguration as the first encoding configuration; map, at the relaynode, the one or more second transport block portions to the resourceallocation, and replacing, at the relay node, unsuccessfully decodedones of the plurality of first transport block portions with blankresources in the resource allocation; and transmit, from the relay node,the one or more second transport block portions on a second linkaccording to the resource allocation.

In another example, a method of wireless communication by a receivernode includes receiving, via an access link, one or more first transportblock portions of a first transport block. The method also includesreceiving, from a sidelink, one or more second transport block portionsof the first transport block from a relay node, wherein the one or moresecond transport block portions are successfully decoded ones of the oneor more first transport block portions, wherein the one or more secondtransport block portions have a second encoding configuration that is asame encoding configuration or a different encoding configuration as afirst encoding configuration of the one or more first transport blockportions. Additionally, the method includes soft combining the one ormore first transport block portions and the one or more second transportblock portions to define a soft combined transport block.

In a further aspect, the present disclosure includes an apparatus forwireless communication including a memory and at least one processorcoupled to the memory. The at least one processor may be configured toreceive, via an access link, one or more first transport block portionsof a first transport block. The at least one processor may be configuredto receive, from a sidelink, one or more second transport block portionsof the first transport block from a relay node, wherein the one or moresecond transport block portions are successfully decoded ones of the oneor more first transport block portions, wherein the one or more secondtransport block portions have a second encoding configuration that is asame encoding configuration or a different encoding configuration as afirst encoding configuration of the one or more first transport blockportions. The at least one processor may be configured to soft combinethe one or more first transport block portions and the one or moresecond transport block portions to define a soft combined transportblock.

In an additional aspect, the present disclosure includes an apparatusfor wireless communication including means for receiving, via an accesslink, one or more first transport block portions of a first transportblock. The apparatus also includes means for receiving, from a sidelink,one or more second transport block portions of the first transport blockfrom a relay node, wherein the one or more second transport blockportions are successfully decoded ones of the one or more firsttransport block portions, wherein the one or more second transport blockportions have a second encoding configuration that is a same encodingconfiguration or a different encoding configuration as a first encodingconfiguration of the one or more first transport block portions.Additionally, the apparatus includes means for soft combining the one ormore first transport block portions and the one or more second transportblock portions to define a soft combined transport block.

In yet another aspect, the present disclosure includes acomputer-readable medium storing computer executable code, the code whenexecuted by a processor cause the processor to receive, via an accesslink, one or more first transport block portions of a first transportblock; receive, from a sidelink, one or more second transport blockportions of the first transport block from a relay node, wherein the oneor more second transport block portions are successfully decoded ones ofthe one or more first transport block portions, wherein the one or moresecond transport block portions have a second encoding configurationthat is a same encoding configuration or a different encodingconfiguration as a first encoding configuration of the one or more firsttransport block portions; and soft combining the one or more firsttransport block portions and the one or more second transport blockportions to define a soft combined transport block.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or moreaspects comprise the features hereinafter fully described andparticularly pointed out in the claims. The following description andthe annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative featuresof the one or more aspects. These features are indicative, however, ofbut a few of the various ways in which the principles of various aspectsmay be employed, and this description is intended to include all suchaspects and their equivalents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example of a wireless communicationssystem and an access network.

FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D are diagrams of examples of a first 5G/NRframe, DL channels within a 5G/NR subframe, a second 5G/NR frame, and ULchannels within a 5G/NR subframe, respectively, for use incommunications between two of the communicating nodes in the system ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example frame structure and resources forsidelink communications between two of the communicating nodes in thesystem of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an example of hardware components oftwo of the communicating nodes in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an example of a sidelink relaycommunication configuration operable in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of two different examples of a sidelinkrelay communication configuration operable in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of example received and transmittedtransport blocks according to operation of a modified data encodingrelay mode of a relay UE operable in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of examples of received and transmittedtransport blocks according to operation of a non-modified data encodingrelay mode of a relay UE operable in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of another example of received andtransmitted transport blocks according to operation of a non-modifieddata encoding relay mode of a relay UE operable in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of an example method of wireless communication ofa relay UE operable in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of another example method of wirelesscommunication of a relay UE operable in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a method of wireless communication of areceiver node relay UE operable in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an example UE, in accordance with variousaspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example base station, in accordancewith various aspects of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appendeddrawings is intended as a description of various configurations and isnot intended to represent the only configurations in which the conceptsdescribed herein may be practiced. The detailed description includesspecific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understandingof various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled inthe art that these concepts may be practiced without these specificdetails. In some instances, well known structures and components areshown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring such concepts.

The present aspects generally relate to sidelink relay communications,which includes a relay user equipment (UE) relaying communications froma base station over a sidelink to a multi-link UE, or from themulti-link UE to the base station via the relay UE. The multi-link UEfurther includes a direct access link to the base station. Themulti-link UE in this case may be referred to as a sidelink-assistedmulti-link UE, as it can establish a multi-link communication with oneor more base stations over two or more communication links, whichinclude at least one direct link and at least one indirect link via asidelink with the relay UE. Such multi-link communications aredesirable, for example, to increase diversity and/or to increasethroughput.

Specifically, present disclosure relates to enhancements to the sidelinkrelay communication scenario, and in particular, to transport blockportion-based (or code block group (CBG) based) sidelink relaying. Thepresent disclosure provides apparatus and methods in which the relay UEmay re-encode successfully decoded transport block portions (or CBGs),either with new encoding or the original encoding, before forwarding thesuccessfully decoded transport block portions (or CBGs) to thesidelink-assisted multi-link UE, e.g., in a downlink communication, orto the base station, e.g., in an uplink communication. Additionally,implementations of the present disclosure may include additionalfeatures, such as modified resource allocation to reducetransmission/reception resource, blanking of unsuccessfully decodedtransport block portions (or CBGs) to reduce transmission/receptionresources, and/or muting of reference signals associated with blankedtransport block portions (or CBGs) to reduce transmission/receptionresources. These and other features of the present disclosure arediscussed in detail below with regard to FIGS. 1-14.

Several aspects of telecommunication systems will now be presented withreference to various apparatus and methods. These apparatus and methodswill be described in the following detailed description and illustratedin the accompanying drawings by various blocks, components, circuits,processes, algorithms, etc. (collectively referred to as “elements”).These elements may be implemented using electronic hardware, computersoftware, or any combination thereof. Whether such elements areimplemented as hardware or software depends upon the particularapplication and design constraints imposed on the overall system.

By way of example, an element, or any portion of an element, or anycombination of elements may be implemented as a “processing system” thatincludes one or more processors. Examples of processors includemicroprocessors, microcontrollers, graphics processing units (GPUs),central processing units (CPUs), application processors, digital signalprocessors (DSPs), reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors,systems on a chip (SoC), baseband processors, field programmable gatearrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines, gatedlogic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardwareconfigured to perform the various functionality described throughoutthis disclosure. One or more processors in the processing system mayexecute software. Software may be construed broadly to meaninstructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code,programs, subprograms, software components, applications, softwareapplications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects,executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whetherreferred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardwaredescription language, or otherwise.

Accordingly, in one or more example embodiments, the functions describedmay be implemented in hardware, software, or any combination thereof. Ifimplemented in software, the functions may be stored on or encoded asone or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium.Computer-readable media includes computer storage media. Storage mediamay be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way ofexample, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise arandom-access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an electricallyerasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), optical disk storage, magnetic diskstorage, other magnetic storage devices, combinations of theaforementioned types of computer-readable media, or any other mediumthat can be used to store computer executable code in the form ofinstructions or data structures that can be accessed by a computer.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communicationssystem and an access network 100. The wireless communications system(also referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) includes basestations 102, UEs 104, an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) 160, and anothercore network 190 (e.g., a 5G Core (5GC)).

In certain aspects, a relay UE 104 b may include a relay multi-linkcommunication component 121 for assisting with sidelink relaycommunications between a base station 102 a and a sidelink-assistedmulti-link UE 104 a. The sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a may havea first access link 120 a directly with the base station 102 a, and asecond communication link with the base station 102 a via a sidelink 158a with the relay UE 104 b, which has a second access link 120 b to thebase station 102 a. The relay multi-link communication component 121 ofthe relay UE 104 b may include a sidelink relay operation mode component123, which may be selectively configured to operate according to amodified data encoding relay mode or a non-modified data encoding relaymode.

Correspondingly, the sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a may include aUE multi-link communication component 125 configured to managecommunications with both the relay UE 104 b via the sidelink 158 a andthe base station 102 a via the access link 120 a.

Similarly, the base station 102 a may include a base station multi-linkcommunication component 127 configured to manage communications withboth the relay UE 104 b via the access link 120 b and thesidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a via the access link 120 a.

Further details of these sidelink relay operational modes and operationsperformed by the relay UE 104 b, the sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104a, and the base station 102 a are discussed in more detail below.

The base stations 102, including base station 102 a, may includemacrocells (high power cellular base station) and/or small cells (lowpower cellular base station). The macrocells include base stations. Thesmall cells include femtocells, picocells, and microcells.

The base stations 102 configured for 4G LTE (collectively referred to asEvolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) TerrestrialRadio Access Network (E-UTRAN)) may interface with the EPC 160 throughbackhaul links 132 (e.g., S1 interface). The base stations 102configured for 5G NR (collectively referred to as Next Generation RAN(NG-RAN)) may interface with 5G core network 190 through backhaul links184. In addition to other functions, the base stations 102 may performone or more of the following functions: transfer of user data, radiochannel ciphering and deciphering, integrity protection, headercompression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dualconnectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection setupand release, load balancing, distribution for non-access stratum (NAS)messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, radio access network(RAN) sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriberand equipment trace, RAN information management (RIM), paging,positioning, and delivery of warning messages. The base stations 102 maycommunicate directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC 160 or corenetwork 190) with each other over backhaul links 134 (e.g., X2interface). The backhaul links 134 may be wired or wireless.

The base stations 102 may wirelessly communicate with the UEs 104,including relay UE 104 b and sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a. Eachof the base stations 102 may provide communication coverage for arespective geographic coverage area 110. There may be overlappinggeographic coverage areas 110. For example, the small cell 102′ may havea coverage area 110′ that overlaps the coverage area 110 of one or moremacro base stations 102. A network that includes both small cell andmacrocells may be known as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneousnetwork may also include Home Evolved Node Bs (eNBs) (HeNBs), which mayprovide service to a restricted group known as a closed subscriber group(CSG). The communication links 120, including access links 120 a and 120b, between the base stations 102 and the UEs 104 may include uplink (UL)(also referred to as reverse link) transmissions from a UE 104 to a basestation 102 and/or downlink (DL) (also referred to as forward link)transmissions from a base station 102 to a UE 104. The communicationlinks 120 may use multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antennatechnology, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and/or transmitdiversity. The communication links may be through one or more carriers.The base stations 102/UEs 104 may use spectrum up to Y MHz (e.g., 5, 10,15, 20, 100, 400, etc. MHz) bandwidth per carrier allocated in a carrieraggregation of up to a total of Yx MHz (x component carriers) used fortransmission in each direction. The carriers may or may not be adjacentto each other. Allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect toDL and UL (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated for DL than forUL). The component carriers may include a primary component carrier andone or more secondary component carriers. A primary component carriermay be referred to as a primary cell (PCell) and a secondary componentcarrier may be referred to as a secondary cell (SCell).

Certain UEs 104, such as relay UE 104 b and sidelink-assisted multi-linkUE 104 a, may communicate with each other using device-to-device (D2D)communication link 158, one example of which includes sidelink 158 a.The D2D communication link 158 may use the DL/UL WWAN spectrum. The D2Dcommunication link 158 may use one or more sidelink channels, such as aphysical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical sidelinkdiscovery channel (PSDCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH),and a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH). D2D communication maybe through a variety of wireless D2D communications systems, such as forexample, FlashLinQ, WiMedia, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Wi-Fi based on the IEEE802.11 standard, LTE, or NR.

The wireless communications system may further include a Wi-Fi accesspoint (AP) 150 in communication with Wi-Fi stations (STAs) 152 viacommunication links 154 in a 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum. Whencommunicating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the STAs 152/AP 150may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) prior to communicating inorder to determine whether the channel is available.

The small cell 102′ may operate in a licensed and/or an unlicensedfrequency spectrum. When operating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum,the small cell 102′ may employ NR and use the same 5 GHz unlicensedfrequency spectrum as used by the Wi-Fi AP 150. The small cell 102′,employing NR in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, may boost coverage toand/or increase capacity of the access network.

A base station 102, whether a small cell 102′ or a large cell (e.g.,macro base station), may include an eNB, gNodeB (gNB), or another typeof base station. Some base stations, such as gNB 180 may operate in atraditional sub 6 GHz spectrum, in millimeter wave (mmW) frequencies,and/or near mmW frequencies in communication with the UE 104. When thegNB 180 operates in mmW or near mmW frequencies, the gNB 180 may bereferred to as an mmW base station. Extremely high frequency (EHF) ispart of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHF has a range of 30GHz to 300 GHz and a wavelength between 1 millimeter and 10 millimeters.Radio waves in the band may be referred to as a millimeter wave. NearmmW may extend down to a frequency of 3 GHz with a wavelength of 100millimeters. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3 GHzand 30 GHz, also referred to as centimeter wave. Communications usingthe mmW/near mmW radio frequency band (e.g., 3 GHz-300 GHz) hasextremely high path loss and a short range. The mmW base station 180 mayutilize beamforming 182 with the UE 104 to compensate for the extremelyhigh path loss and short range.

The base station 180 may transmit a beamformed signal to the UE 104 inone or more transmit directions 182′. The UE 104 may receive thebeamformed signal from the base station 180 in one or more receivedirections 182″. The UE 104 may also transmit a beamformed signal to thebase station 180 in one or more transmit directions. The base station180 may receive the beamformed signal from the UE 104 in one or morereceive directions. The base station 180/UE 104 may perform beamtraining to determine the best receive and transmit directions for eachof the base station 180/UE 104. The transmit and receive directions forthe base station 180 may or may not be the same. The transmit andreceive directions for the UE 104 may or may not be the same.

The EPC 160 may include a Mobility Management Entity (MME) 162, otherMMEs 164, a Serving Gateway 166, a Multimedia Broadcast MulticastService (MBMS) Gateway 168, a Broadcast Multicast Service Center (BM-SC)170, and a Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway 172. The MME 162 may be incommunication with a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 174. The MME 162 isthe control node that processes the signaling between the UEs 104 andthe EPC 160. Generally, the MME 162 provides bearer and connectionmanagement. All user Internet protocol (IP) packets are transferredthrough the Serving Gateway 166, which itself is connected to the PDNGateway 172. The PDN Gateway 172 provides UE IP address allocation aswell as other functions. The PDN Gateway 172 and the BM-SC 170 areconnected to the IP Services 176. The IP Services 176 may include theInternet, an intranet, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), a PS StreamingService, and/or other IP services. The BM-SC 170 may provide functionsfor MBMS user service provisioning and delivery. The BM-SC 170 may serveas an entry point for content provider MBMS transmission, may be used toauthorize and initiate MBMS Bearer Services within a public land mobilenetwork (PLMN), and may be used to schedule MBMS transmissions. The MBMSGateway 168 may be used to distribute MBMS traffic to the base stations102 belonging to a Multicast Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN)area broadcasting a particular service, and may be responsible forsession management (start/stop) and for collecting eMBMS relatedcharging information.

The core network 190 may include a Access and Mobility ManagementFunction (AMF) 192, other AMFs 193, a Session Management Function (SMF)194, and a User Plane Function (UPF) 195. The AMF 192 may be incommunication with a Unified Data Management (UDM) 196. The AMF 192 isthe control node that processes the signaling between the UEs 104 andthe core network 190. Generally, the AMF 192 provides QoS flow andsession management. All user Internet protocol (IP) packets aretransferred through the UPF 195. The UPF 195 provides UE IP addressallocation as well as other functions. The UPF 195 is connected to theIP Services 197. The IP Services 197 may include the Internet, anintranet, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), a PS Streaming Service,and/or other IP services.

The base station may also be referred to as a gNB, Node B, evolved NodeB (eNB), an access point, a base transceiver station, a radio basestation, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic serviceset (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), a transmit reception point(TRP), or some other suitable terminology. The base station 102 providesan access point to the EPC 160 or core network 190 for a UE 104.Examples of UEs 104 include a cellular phone, a smart phone, a sessioninitiation protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a satellite radio, a global positioning system, a multimediadevice, a video device, a digital audio player (e.g., MP3 player), acamera, a game console, a tablet, a smart device, a wearable device, avehicle, an electric meter, a gas pump, a large or small kitchenappliance, a healthcare device, an implant, a sensor/actuator, adisplay, or any other similar functioning device. Some of the UEs 104may be referred to as IoT devices (e.g., parking meter, gas pump,toaster, vehicles, heart monitor, etc.). The UE 104 may also be referredto as a station, a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile unit,a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, awireless device, a wireless communications device, a remote device, amobile subscriber station, an access terminal, a mobile terminal, awireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a user agent, a mobileclient, a client, or some other suitable terminology.

FIGS. 2A-2D include diagrams of example frame structures and resourcesthat may be utilized in communications between the base stations 102,the UEs 104 described in this disclosure. FIG. 2A is a diagram 200illustrating an example of a first subframe within a 5G/NR framestructure. FIG. 2B is a diagram 230 illustrating an example of DLchannels within a 5G/NR subframe. FIG. 2C is a diagram 250 illustratingan example of a second subframe within a 5G/NR frame structure. FIG. 2Dis a diagram 280 illustrating an example of UL channels within a 5G/NRsubframe. The 5G/NR frame structure may be FDD in which for a particularset of subcarriers (carrier system bandwidth), subframes within the setof subcarriers are dedicated for either DL or UL, or may be TDD in whichfor a particular set of subcarriers (carrier system bandwidth),subframes within the set of subcarriers are dedicated for both DL andUL. In the examples provided by FIGS. 2A, 2C, the 5G/NR frame structureis assumed to be TDD, with subframe 4 being configured with slot format28 (with mostly DL), where D is DL, U is UL, and X is flexible for usebetween DL/UL, and subframe 3 being configured with slot format 34 (withmostly UL). While subframes 3, 4 are shown with slot formats 34, 28,respectively, any particular subframe may be configured with any of thevarious available slot formats 0-61. Slot formats 0, 1 are all DL, UL,respectively. Other slot formats 2-61 include a mix of DL, UL, andflexible symbols. UEs are configured with the slot format (dynamicallythrough DL control information (DCI), or semi-statically/staticallythrough radio resource control (RRC) signaling) through a received slotformat indicator (SFI). Note that the description infra applies also toa 5G/NR frame structure that is TDD.

Other wireless communication technologies may have a different framestructure and/or different channels. A frame (10 ms) may be divided into10 equally sized subframes (1 ms). Each subframe may include one or moretime slots. Subframes may also include mini-slots, which may include 7,4, or 2 symbols. Each slot may include 7 or 14 symbols, depending on theslot configuration. For slot configuration 0, each slot may include 14symbols, and for slot configuration 1, each slot may include 7 symbols.The symbols on DL may be cyclic prefix (CP) OFDM (CP-OFDM) symbols. Thesymbols on UL may be CP-OFDM symbols (for high throughput scenarios) ordiscrete Fourier transform (DFT) spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) symbols (alsoreferred to as single carrier frequency-division multiple access(SC-FDMA) symbols) (for power limited scenarios; limited to a singlestream transmission). The number of slots within a subframe is based onthe slot configuration and the numerology. For slot configuration 0,different numerologies μ 0 to 5 allow for 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 slots,respectively, per subframe. For slot configuration 1, differentnumerologies 0 to 2 allow for 2, 4, and 8 slots, respectively, persubframe. Accordingly, for slot configuration 0 and numerology μ, thereare 14 symbols/slot and 2^(μ) slots/subframe. The subcarrier spacing andsymbol length/duration are a function of the numerology. The subcarrierspacing may be equal to 2^(μ)*15 kHz, where μ is the numerology 0 to 5.As such, the numerology μ=0 has a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz and thenumerology μ=5 has a subcarrier spacing of 480 kHz. The symbollength/duration is inversely related to the subcarrier spacing. FIGS.2A-2D provide an example of slot configuration 0 with 14 symbols perslot and numerology μ=0 with 1 slot per subframe. The subcarrier spacingis 15 kHz and symbol duration is approximately 66.7 μs.

A resource grid may be used to represent the frame structure. Each timeslot includes a resource block (RB) (also referred to as physical RBs(PRBs)) that extends 12 consecutive subcarriers. The resource grid isdivided into multiple resource elements (REs). The number of bitscarried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

As illustrated in FIG. 2A, some of the REs carry reference (pilot)signals (RS) for the UE. The RS may include demodulation RS (DM-RS)(indicated as R_(x) for one particular configuration, where 100× is theport number, but other DM-RS configurations are possible) and channelstate information reference signals (CSI-RS) for channel estimation atthe UE. The RS may also include beam measurement RS (BRS), beamrefinement RS (BRRS), and phase tracking RS (PT-RS).

FIG. 2B illustrates an example of various DL channels within a subframeof a frame. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries DCIwithin one or more control channel elements (CCEs), each CCE includingnine RE groups (REGs), each REG including four consecutive REs in anOFDM symbol. A primary synchronization signal (PSS) may be within symbol2 of particular subframes of a frame. The PSS is used by a UE 104 todetermine subframe/symbol timing and a physical layer identity. Asecondary synchronization signal (SSS) may be within symbol 4 ofparticular subframes of a frame. The SSS is used by a UE to determine aphysical layer cell identity group number and radio frame timing. Basedon the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identitygroup number, the UE can determine a physical cell identifier (PCI).Based on the PCI, the UE can determine the locations of theaforementioned DM-RS. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH), whichcarries a master information block (MIB), may be logically grouped withthe PSS and SSS to form a synchronization signal (SS)/PBCH block. TheMIB provides a number of RBs in the system bandwidth and a system framenumber (SFN). The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries userdata, broadcast system information not transmitted through the PBCH suchas system information blocks (SIBs), and paging messages.

As illustrated in FIG. 2C, some of the REs carry DM-RS (indicated as Rfor one particular configuration, but other DM-RS configurations arepossible) for channel estimation at the base station. The UE maytransmit DM-RS for the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and DM-RSfor the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The PUSCH DM-RS may betransmitted in the first one or two symbols of the PUSCH. The PUCCHDM-RS may be transmitted in different configurations depending onwhether short or long PUCCHs are transmitted and depending on theparticular PUCCH format used. Although not shown, the UE may transmitsounding reference signals (SRS). The SRS may be used by a base stationfor channel quality estimation to enable frequency-dependent schedulingon the UL.

FIG. 2D illustrates an example of various UL channels within a subframeof a frame. The PUCCH may be located as indicated in one configuration.The PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI), such as schedulingrequests, a channel quality indicator (CQI), a precoding matrixindicator (PMI), a rank indicator (RI), and HARQ ACK/NACK feedback. ThePUSCH carries data, and may additionally be used to carry a bufferstatus report (BSR), a power headroom report (PHR), and/or UCI.

FIG. 3 is a diagram 300 of an example of a slot structure that may beused within a 5G/NR frame structure, e.g., for sidelink communication.This is merely one example, and other wireless communicationtechnologies may have a different frame structure and/or differentchannels. A frame (10 ms) may be divided into 10 equally sized subframes(1 ms). Each subframe may include one or more time slots. Subframes mayalso include mini-slots, which may include 7, 4, or 2 symbols. Each slotmay include 7 or 14 symbols, depending on the slot configuration. Forslot configuration 0, each slot may include 14 symbols, and for slotconfiguration 1, each slot may include 7 symbols.

A resource grid may be used to represent the frame structure. Each timeslot may include a resource block (RB) (also referred to as physical RBs(PRBs)) that extends 12 consecutive subcarriers. The resource grid isdivided into multiple resource elements (REs). The number of bitscarried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme. Some of the REs maycomprise control information, e.g., along with demodulation RS (DM-RS).The control information may comprise Sidelink Control Information (SCI).In some implementations, at least one symbol at the beginning of a slotmay be used by a transmitting device to perform a Listen Before Talk(LBT) operation prior to transmitting. In some implementations, at leastone symbol may be used for feedback, as described herein. In someimplementations, another symbol, e.g., at the end of the slot, may beused as a gap. The gap enables a device to switch from operating as atransmitting device to prepare to operate as a receiving device, e.g.,in the following slot. Data may be transmitted in the remaining REs, asillustrated. The data may comprise the data message described herein.The position of any of the SCI, feedback, and LBT symbols may bedifferent than the example illustrated in FIG. 3. In someimplementations, multiple slots may be aggregated together, and theexample aggregation of two slots in FIG. 3 should not be consideredlimiting, as the aggregated number of slots may also be larger than two.When slots are aggregated, the symbols used for feedback and/or a gapsymbol may be different that for a single slot.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of hardware components of an example transmittingand/or receiving (TX/RX) nodes 410 and 450, which may be anycombinations of base station 102-UE 104 communications, and/or UE 104-UE104 communications in system 100. For example, such communications mayincluding, but are not limited to, communications such as a base stationtransmitting to a relay UE, a relay UE transmitting to a multi-link UE,a multi-link UE transmitting to a relay UE, or a relay UE transmittingto a base station in an access network. In one specific example, theTX/RX node 410 may be an example implementation of base station 102 andwhere TX/RX node 450 may be an example implementation of UE 104. In theDL, IP packets from the EPC 160 may be provided to acontroller/processor 475. The controller/processor 475 implements layer4 and layer 2 functionality. Layer 4 includes a radio resource control(RRC) layer, and layer 2 includes a service data adaptation protocol(SDAP) layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radiolink control (RLC) layer, and a medium access control (MAC) layer. Thecontroller/processor 475 provides RRC layer functionality associatedwith broadcasting of system information (e.g., MIB, SIBs), RRCconnection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connectionestablishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release),inter radio access technology (RAT) mobility, and measurementconfiguration for UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionalityassociated with header compression/decompression, security (ciphering,deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handoversupport functions; RLC layer functionality associated with the transferof upper layer packet data units (PDUs), error correction through ARQ,concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC service data units(SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC dataPDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping betweenlogical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs ontotransport blocks (TBs), demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, schedulinginformation reporting, error correction through HARQ, priority handling,and logical channel prioritization.

The transmit (TX) processor 416 and the receive (RX) processor 470implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signalprocessing functions. Layer 1, which includes a physical (PHY) layer,may include error detection on the transport channels, forward errorcorrection (FEC) coding/decoding of the transport channels,interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physical channels,modulation/demodulation of physical channels, and MIMO antennaprocessing. The TX processor 416 handles mapping to signalconstellations based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binaryphase-shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK),M-phase-shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation(M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be split intoparallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to an OFDM subcarrier,multiplexed with a reference signal (e.g., pilot) in the time and/orfrequency domain, and then combined together using an Inverse FastFourier Transform (IFFT) to produce a physical channel carrying a timedomain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM stream is spatially precoded toproduce multiple spatial streams. Channel estimates from a channelestimator 474 may be used to determine the coding and modulation scheme,as well as for spatial processing. The channel estimate may be derivedfrom a reference signal and/or channel condition feedback transmitted bythe tx/rx node 450. Each spatial stream may then be provided to adifferent antenna 420 via a separate transmitter 418TX. Each transmitter418TX may modulate an RF carrier with a respective spatial stream fortransmission.

At the TX/RX node 450, each receiver 454RX receives a signal through itsrespective antenna 452. Each receiver 454RX recovers informationmodulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to the receive(RX) processor 456. The TX processor 468 and the RX processor 456implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signalprocessing functions. The RX processor 456 may perform spatialprocessing on the information to recover any spatial streams destinedfor the TX/RX node 450. If multiple spatial streams are destined for theTX/RX node 450, they may be combined by the RX processor 456 into asingle OFDM symbol stream. The RX processor 456 then converts the OFDMsymbol stream from the time-domain to the frequency domain using a FastFourier Transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal comprises aseparate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. Thesymbols on each subcarrier, and the reference signal, are recovered anddemodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation pointstransmitted by the TX/RX node 410. These soft decisions may be based onchannel estimates computed by the channel estimator 458. The softdecisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data andcontrol signals that were originally transmitted by the TX/RX node 410on the physical channel. The data and control signals are then providedto the controller/processor 459, which implements layer 4 and layer 2functionality.

The controller/processor 459 can be associated with a memory 460 thatstores program codes and data. The memory 460 may be referred to as acomputer-readable medium. In the UL, the controller/processor 459provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packetreassembly, deciphering, header decompression, and control signalprocessing to recover IP packets from the EPC 160. Thecontroller/processor 459 is also responsible for error detection usingan ACK and/or NACK protocol to support HARQ operations.

Similar to the functionality described in connection with the DLtransmission by the TX/RX node 410, the controller/processor 459provides RRC layer functionality associated with system information(e.g., MIB, SIBs) acquisition, RRC connections, and measurementreporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with headercompression/decompression, and security (ciphering, deciphering,integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionalityassociated with the transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correctionthrough ARQ, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs,re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; andMAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channelsand transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto TBs,demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting,error correction through HARQ, priority handling, and logical channelprioritization.

Channel estimates derived by a channel estimator 458 from a referencesignal or feedback transmitted by the TX/RX node 410 may be used by theTX processor 468 to select the appropriate coding and modulationschemes, and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streamsgenerated by the TX processor 468 may be provided to different antenna452 via separate transmitters 454TX. Each transmitter 454TX may modulatean RF carrier with a respective spatial stream for transmission.

The UL transmission is processed at the TX/RX node 410 in a mannersimilar to that described in connection with the receiver function atthe TX/RX node 450. Each receiver 418RX receives a signal through itsrespective antenna 420. Each receiver 418RX recovers informationmodulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to a RXprocessor 470.

The controller/processor 475 can be associated with a memory 476 thatstores program codes and data. The memory 476 may be referred to as acomputer-readable medium. In the UL, the controller/processor 475provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packetreassembly, deciphering, header decompression, control signal processingto recover IP packets from the tx/rx node 450. IP packets from thecontroller/processor 475 may be provided to the EPC 160. Thecontroller/processor 475 is also responsible for error detection usingan ACK and/or NACK protocol to support HARQ operations.

In an implementation, at least one of the TX processor 468, the RXprocessor 456, and the controller/processor 459 may be configured toperform aspects in connection with components 121, 125, and/or 127 ofFIG. 1.

In an implementation, at least one of the TX processor 416, the RXprocessor 470, and the controller/processor 475 may be configured toperform aspects in connection with components 121, 125, and/or 127 ofFIG. 1.

Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, the present aspects generally relate to asidelink relay communication scenario 500, 602, and/or 604 that includesrelaying communications over a sidelink. As mentioned above, sidelinkcommunication generally includes any type of device-to-device (D2D)communication. D2D communications may be used in applications such as,but not limited to, vehicle-to-anything (V2X) or vehicle to any otherdevice type of communications, sensor networks, public safety-relatedcommunication services with limited infrastructure availability, or anyother such type of application.

In the sidelink relay communication scenario 500, 602, and/or 604, asidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a may establish a multi-linkcommunication with one or more base stations 102 a and/or 102 b over twoor more communication links, which include at least one direct link andat least one indirect link via a sidelink with a relay UE 104 b. In afirst case, such as in the sidelink relay communication scenarios 500and 602, the sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a directly communicateswith the base station 102 a via a first access link (AL) 120 a, andindirectly communicates with the base station 102 a via a sidelink 158 awith the relay UE 104 b, which has a second access link 120 b with thebase station 102 a. In general, an access link such as access link 120 aor 120 b is a communication link between a respective UE and arespective base station (or gNB), which may also be referred to as a Uuinterface in 4G LTE and/or in 5G NR technologies. In general, thesidelink 158 a is a communication link between UEs, which may bereferred to as a PC5 interface in 4G LTE and/or in 5G NR technologies.In any case, the sidelink relay communication scenario 500, 602, and/or604 may be utilized for improved diversity, e.g., sending the same dataover two links (access link and sidelink), and/or improved throughput,e.g., sending different, independent data over each link. In animplementation, in a mmW system, this type of multi-link communicationmay be attained using multiple transmit/receive beams and multipleantenna panels (sub-arrays) between the UEs and/or between a respectiveUE and a respective base station/gNB.

Further, in a second case, such as in the sidelink relay communicationscenario 604, the sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a may establishmultiple links with multiple base stations 102 a and 102 b, which may bereferred to as a multi-transmit-receive point (multi-TRP) architecture.In this case, the sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a directlycommunicates with the base station 102 a via a first access link (AL)120 a, and indirectly communicates with the base station 102 b via asidelink 158 a with the relay UE 104 b, which has a second access link120 b with the base station 102 b. Additionally, in this case, the basestations 102 a and 102 b may exchange communications over a backhaullink 134 a.

Additionally, in the sidelink relay communication scenario 500, 602,and/or 604, the communications exchanged between the base station 102a/102 b, relay UE 104 b, and sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a maybe uplink (UL) communications 502 and/or downlink (DL) communications504 (see FIG. 5).

Referring to FIGS. 7-9, the present disclosure relates to enhancementsto the sidelink relay communication scenario 500, 602, and/or 604 (FIGS.5 and 6), and in particular to transport block portion-based (or codeblock group (CBG) based) sidelink relaying. In particular, the presentdisclosure provides apparatus and methods in which the relay UE 104 bmay re-encode successfully decoded transport block portions (or CBGs),either with new encoding or the original encoding, before forwarding thesuccessfully decoded transport block portions (or CBGs) to thesidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a, e.g., in a DL communication 504,or to the base station 102 a or 102 b, e.g., in a UL communication 502.For instance, the relay UE 104 b may support multiple relay operationalmodes, including either a modified data encoding relay mode 107 or anon-modified data encoding relay mode 109, which may be setup on therelay UE 104 b by a received configuration message (e.g., from basestation 102 a/102 b or from sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a).

During operation according to the modified data encoding relay mode 107(see FIG. 7), the relay UE 104 b can modify successfully decodedtransport block portions (or CBGs) while re-encoding the data forrelaying to the receiver node, e.g., the sidelink-assisted multi-link UE104 a for DL communications 504 or the base station 102 a/102 b for ULcommunications 504. In an example, the modified encoding/relayedtransmission parameters may include one or any combination of aredundancy value (RV), a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), a resourceallocation, a rank, or any other transmission-related parameter forsending the data, of the re-encoded transport block portions (or CBGs)that are being relayed by the relay UE 104 b can be different from thecorresponding parameter used in the transmission of the original,received transport block portions (or CBGs). In some implementations ofthis mode, the receiver node (the base station 102 a or 102 b, e.g., ina UL communication 502, or to the sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a,e.g., in a DL communication 504) may first demodulate/decode transportblock portions (or CBGs) from the AL 120 a/102 b and SL 158 a separatelyand combine them (i.e., soft-combining) to improve reliability.Additionally, in some implementations of this mode, the relay UE 104 bmay convey additional control information via a sidelink message, e.g.,by PSSCH or PUCCH, to inform the receiver node of the modified encoding,resource allocation, etc.

During operation according to the non-modified data encoding relay mode109 (see FIGS. 8 and 9), the relay UE 104 b does not modify successfullydecoded transport block portions (or CBGs) while re-encoding the datafor relaying to the receiver node, e.g., the sidelink-assistedmulti-link UE 104 a for DL communications 504 or the base station 102a/102 b for UL communications 504. In other words, the encoding/relayedtransmission parameters, which may include one or any combination of anRV, an MCS, a resource allocation, a rank, or any othertransmission-related parameter for sending the data, of the re-encodedtransport block portions (or CBGs) that are being relayed by the relayUE 104 b are maintained to be the same as the corresponding parameterused in the transmission of the original, received transport blockportions (or CBGs).

In some implementations of this mode, the relay UE 104 b may transmit a“blank transport block portion” (or a “blank CBG”) for the transportblock portions (or CBGs) of a decoding failure. In other words, for anyunsuccessfully decoded transport block portion (or CBG) of a transportblock having data for another node, e.g., a transport block or partthereof that is being relayed, the relay UE 104 b operating in thenon-modified data encoding relay mode 109 may “blank” the correspondingresource elements, which means that the relay UE 104 b may not transmitany data in the corresponding resource element. Also, in someimplementations of this mode, if a symbol in the resource allocation ofthe transport block portions (or CBGs) includes a reference signal, suchas but not limited to a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and if thesymbol only overlaps with blank transport block portions (or CBGs), thenthe transmission of the reference signal in the symbol may be muted,e.g., the entire symbol may be blanked or no transmission may occur inthe symbol. For instance, the reference signal-muting or -blanking maybe based on a rule, such as but not limited to being based on a numberor density of reference signal resources being less than a thresholdnumber, a relative position with respect to other non-blanked transportblock portions (or CBGs) being less than a relative position threshold,etc., or by an explicit indication (e.g., received from the base station102 a/102 b or the sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a). In otherwords, as long as there is no significant performance impact, thereference signal can be muted. For example, if the number of DMRSsymbols is large, muting one of them may not have any strong performanceimpact.

Additionally, in some implementations of this mode, the receiver node(the base station 102 a or 102 b, e.g., in a UL communication 502, or tothe sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a, e.g., in a DL communication504) may perform pre-demodulation (or pre-demapping) combining of thetransport block portions (or CBGs) from the different links (e.g., AL120 a and sidelink 158 a) for reduced complexity, which may bebeneficial for low-complexity receiver devices (e.g., UEs that haverelatively low processing and/or memory capabilities). As used herein, alow-complexity device means a low-tier/low-capability device. Forexample, wireless sensors or meters, and IoT tags may have limitedprocessing capability due to low-cost implementation (e.g., full modemfeatures such as those for smartphone will not implemented on thesetypes of devices). Also, those devices may operate withnon-rechargeable/non-replaceable batteries, so low power consumption isnecessary, which further limits processing capability.

As such, the selection/configuration of the relay UE 104 b to operateaccording to the modified data encoding relay mode 107 or thenon-modified data encoding relay mode 109 may depend on the capabilityor preference of the relay UE 104 b and/or of the sidelink-assistedmulti-link UE 104 a. The modified data encoding relay mode 107 mayentail smaller radio resources for relaying but, at the same time, mayentail more control overhead and more processing at thereceiver/destination node, because the two paths (access link and relaypath) should be separately demodulated/decoded. On the other hand, thenon-modified data encoding relay mode 109 may entail more radioresources for relaying, but may entail less processing at thereceiver/destination node, which would be beneficial for less-capableUEs, such as low-complexity/low-power devices.

Referring specifically to FIG. 7, an example modified encoding sidelinkrelay communication scenario 700 for the relay UE 104 b operatingaccording to the modified data encoding relay mode 107 includes therelay UE 104 b receiving an original transport block 702 and relaying anencoding-modified transport block 730 for either UL communication 502 orDL communication 504. The original transport block 702 includes aresource allocation of a plurality of resources in both frequency(resource elements (REs) and/or resource blocks (RBs)) and time (e.g.,OFDM symbols 1 to 10), including first, second, and third referencesignal (e.g., DMRS) symbols 704, 706, 708 and first, second, third, andfourth transport block portions (or CBGs) 710, 712, 714, and 716. Inthis scenario, the relay UE 104 b experiences a decoding failure of thefirst transport block portion (or first CBG) 710.

As a result, based on operating according to the modified data encodingrelay mode 107, the relay UE 104 b is configured to perform a relayingtransmission, such as for a sidelink communication, by encoding thesuccessfully encoded second, third, and fourth transport block portions(or CBGs) 712, 714, and 716 according to a different encodingconfiguration, as compared to the encoding configuration of second,third, and fourth transport block portions (or CBGs) 712, 714, and 716of the original transport block 702, to generate transport blockportions (or CBGs) 722, 724, and 726 of a relayed transport block 730.

Additionally, in this case, the resource allocation of transport blockportions (or CBGs) 722, 724, and 726 in relayed transport block 730changes, relative to the resource allocation of the correspondingsecond, third, and fourth transport block portions (or CBGs) 712, 714,and 716 of the original transport block 702. In particular, based onoperating according to the modified data encoding relay mode 107, therelay UE 104 b may forward only the successfully decoded transport blockportions (or CBGs), and thus may omit unsuccessfully decodedportions/groups, and hence utilize less resources for transmitting therelayed transport block 730. In this case, for example where the relayUE 104 b experiences a decoding failure of the first transport blockportion (or first CBG) 710, the relay UE 104 b may shift the transportblock portions (or CBGs) 722, 724, and 726 to fill up the originallocation of the resource allocation for the first transport blockportion (or first CBG) 710.

Referring to FIG. 8, example non-modified encoding with blankingsidelink relay communication scenarios 800 and 830 include the relay UE104 b operating according to the non-modified data encoding relay mode109, receiving the original transport block 702 (e.g., same as in FIG.7), and relaying a non-encoding-modified, partially blanked transportblock 802 (for scenario 800) or 832 (for scenario 830) for either ULcommunication 502 or DL communication 504.

Notably, the non-encoding-modified, partially blanked transport block802 in scenario 800 includes muting of reference signals within a symbolincluding a blanked transport block portion (or a blanked CBG). Forexample, scenario 800 includes the relay UE 104 b experiencing adecoding failure of the first transport block portion (or first CBG)710. In response, and based on operating according to the non-modifieddata encoding relay mode 109, the relay UE 104 b may replace theunsuccessfully decoded first transport block portion (or first CBG) 710with blank resources or a blank portion/block 810.

Additionally, in response to identifying a symbol, e.g., symbol 1 inthis case, including only the blank portion/block 810, and not anysuccessfully decoded transport block portions (or CBGs), e.g., thesecond, third, and fourth transport block portions (or CBGs) 712, 714,and 716, the relay UE 104 b operating according to the non-modified dataencoding relay mode 109 may mute the first reference signal symbol 704(e.g., DMRS symbols) within the blank block 810, as represented by mutedreference signal symbol 804. In other words, no reference signal symbolsare transmitted by the relay UE 104 b when the resource allocation inthe transport block includes a muted reference signal symbol. Thus, inscenario 800, the relay UE 104 b blanks unsuccessfully decoded transportblock portions (or CBGs) and mutes reference signal symbols associatedwith only the blanked unsuccessfully decoded transport block portions(or CBGs).

In contrast, in scenario 830, the relay UE 104 b operating according tothe non-modified data encoding relay mode 109 generates thenon-encoding-modified, partially blanked transport block 832 in a mannerthat avoids muting of reference signals within a symbol including ablanked transport block portion (or a blanked CBG) when the symbol alsoincludes resources occupied by successfully decoded transport blockportions (or CBGs). For example, scenario 830 includes the relay UE 104b experiencing a decoding failure of the third transport block portion(or third CBG) 714. In response, and based on operating according to thenon-modified data encoding relay mode 109, the relay UE 104 b mayreplace the unsuccessfully decoded third transport block portion (orthird CBG) 714 with blank resources or a blank portion/block 814.Additionally, in response to identifying a symbol, e.g., symbol 8 inthis case, including the blank portion/block 810 and a successfullydecoded transport block portion (or CBG), e.g., fourth transport blockportion (or fourth CBG) 716 in this case, the relay UE 104 b operatingaccording to the non-modified data encoding relay mode 109 may not mutethe corresponding third reference signal symbol (e.g., DMRS symbols) 708within symbol 8 that includes the blank block 814.

For example, in some cases, the relay UE 104 b operating according tothe non-modified data encoding relay mode 109 may execute a rule orreceive an indication to not mute reference signal symbols within asymbol. In an example, which should not be construed as limiting, therule or indication may dictate to not mute reference signals within asymbol, for instance, when blanked resources and non-blanked resourcesboth are present in the symbol, e.g., the symbol is partially blanked.It should be noted, however, that the relay UE 104 b does blank theresource elements within symbol 8 of the third unsuccessfully decodedtransport block portions (or third CBGs) 714. Thus, in scenario 830, therelay UE 104 b blanks unsuccessfully decoded transport block portions(or CBGs) and avoids muting reference signal symbols associated withboth blanked transport block portions (or blanked CBGs) and successfullydecoded transport block portions (or CBGs).

Referring to FIG. 9, another example non-modified encoding with blankingsidelink relay communication scenario 900 includes the relay UE 104 boperating according to the non-modified data encoding relay mode 109,receiving an original transport block 902 (similar to original transportblock 702 in FIG. 7, but without second reference signal symbol 706),and relaying a non-encoding-modified, non-muted reference signaltransport block 930 for either UL communication 502 or DL communication504. Notably, scenario 900 is somewhat similar to scenario 800, however,the first reference signal (or DMRS) symbol 704 is not muted, eventhough it is within blank portion/block 910.

For example, in some cases, the relay UE 104 b operating according tothe non-modified data encoding relay mode 109 may execute a rule orreceive an indication to not mute reference signal symbols withinblanked portions/blocks. In an example, which should not be construed aslimiting, the rule or indication may dictate to not mute referencesignals within a blanked portion/block, for instance, when the number ordensity of reference signal resources is under a threshold, or whentheir relative position to other non-blanked transport block portions(or CBGs) is over a threshold. For example, the rule or indication maybe configured to not mute reference signal symbols when such muting mayaffect the demodulation/decoding performance of a subsequent transportblock portion (or CBG) in the transport block.

In scenario 900, if the first reference signal (or DMRS) symbol 704 ismuted, it may affect the demodulation/decoding performance of thetransport block portion (or CBG) 712, because it does not contain anyreference signal and is relatively far apart from the next referencesignal symbol 708. Thus, in scenario 900, the relay UE 104 b blanksunsuccessfully decoded transport block portions (or CBGs) and avoidsmuting reference signal symbols associated with the blanked transportblock portions (or blanked CBGs).

Referring to FIG. 10, an example method 1000 of wireless communicationmay be performed by the relay UE 104 b, which may include one or morecomponents as discussed in FIG. 1, 4, or 13, and which may operateaccording to the modified-data encoding relay mode 107 as discussedabove with regard to FIGS. 5-7.

At 1002, method 1000 includes attempting, at the relay node, to decode aplurality of first transport block portions of a transport block,wherein the plurality of first transport block portions are received ona first link according to a first encoding configuration. For example,in an aspect, the relay UE 104 b may operate one or any combination ofantennas 1365, RF front end 1388, transceiver 1302, processor 1312,memory 1316, modem 1340, or relay multi-link communication component 121to attempt to decode a plurality of first transport block portions of atransport block, which may be transmitted in a signal received by therelay UE 104 b from the base station 102 a or the sidelink-assistedmulti-link UE 104 a. For example, any of the above components mayinclude encoding and decoding algorithms for one or more differentwireless communication protocols. Aspect regarding the encodingconfiguration is discussed above in more detail with respect to FIGS.5-7.

At 1004, method 1000 includes encoding, at the relay node, successfullydecoded ones of the plurality of first transport block portionsaccording to a second encoding configuration to define one or moresecond transport block portions corresponding to the transport block,wherein the second encoding configuration is different from the firstencoding configuration. For example, in an aspect, the relay UE 104 bmay operate one or any combination of transceiver 1302, processor 1312,memory 1316, modem 1340, or relay multi-link communication component 121to encode successfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transportblock portions according to a second encoding configuration to defineone or more second transport block portions corresponding to thetransport block. For example, any of the above components may includeencoding and decoding algorithms for one or more different wirelesscommunication protocols, which may be applied to the successfullydecoded transport block portions in the manner described above accordingto the modified-data encoding relay mode 107 to re-encode them forsending to the receiver (or destination) node in the sidelink assistedcommunication configuration discussed above.

At 1006, method 1000 includes transmitting, from the relay node, the oneor more second transport block portions on a second link according tothe second encoding configuration. For example, in an aspect, the relayUE 104 b may operate one or any combination of antennas 1365, RF frontend 1388, transceiver 1302, processor 1312, memory 1316, modem 1340, orrelay multi-link communication component 121 to transmit the one or moresecond transport block portions, according to the second encodingconfiguration, for example as wireless signals.

In some implementations, method 1000 may further include omittingunsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions from the one or more second transport block portions.

In some implementations, method 1000 may further include mapping the oneor more second transport block portions to a second resource allocationdifferent from a first resource allocation of the plurality of firsttransport block portions. In some cases, the second resource allocationincludes less resource elements that the first resource allocation. Insome cases, mapping the one or more second transport block portions to asecond resource allocation includes shifting a part of the successfullydecoded ones of the plurality of first transport block portions intoresources previously allocated to the unsuccessfully decoded ones of theplurality of first transport block portions

In some implementations of method 1000, the encoding at 1004 of thesuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions according to the second encoding configuration comprisesencoding according to at least one of a second redundancy version, asecond modulation and coding scheme, or a second rank that is differentfrom a corresponding one of at least one of a first redundancy version,a first modulation and coding scheme, or a first rank of the firstencoding configuration.

In some implementations, method 1000 may further include transmittingcontrol information to indicate a part of the second encodingconfiguration different from the first encoding configuration.

In some implementations of method 1000, the transmitting at 1006 of theone or more second transport block portions comprises a downlinktransmission transmitted via a sidelink. In other implementations, thetransmitting at 1006 of the one or more second transport block portionscomprises an uplink transmission transmitted via an access link.

In some implementations of method 1000, the plurality of first transportblock portions and the one or more second transport block portions arecode block groups

Referring to FIG. 11, an example method 1100 of wireless communicationmay be performed by the relay UE 104 b, which may include one or morecomponents as discussed in FIG. 1, 4, or 13, and which may operateaccording to the non-modified-data encoding relay mode 109, as discussedabove with regard to FIGS. 5, 6, 8, and 9.

At 1102, method 1100 includes attempting, at the relay node, to decode aplurality of first transport block portions of a transport block,wherein the plurality of first transport block portions are received ona first link in allocated resources according to a first encodingconfiguration. For example, in an aspect, the relay UE 104 b may operateone or any combination of antennas 1365, RF front end 1388, transceiver1302, processor 1312, memory 1316, modem 1340, or relay multi-linkcommunication component 121 to attempt to decode a plurality of firsttransport block portions of a transport block, wherein the plurality offirst transport block portions are received in allocated resourcesaccording to a first encoding configuration, which may be transmitted ina signal received by the relay UE 104 b from the base station 102 a orthe sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a. For example, any of the abovecomponents may include encoding and decoding algorithms for one or moredifferent wireless communication protocols. Aspect regarding theencoding configuration is discussed above in more detail with respect toFIGS. 5, 6, 8, and 9.

At 1104, method 1100 includes encoding, at the relay node, successfullydecoded ones of the plurality of first transport block portionsaccording to a second encoding configuration to define one or moresecond transport block portions, wherein the second encodingconfiguration is a same configuration as the first encodingconfiguration. For example, in an aspect, the relay UE 104 b may operateone or any combination of transceiver 1302, processor 1312, memory 1316,modem 1340, or relay multi-link communication component 121 to encodesuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions according to a second encoding configuration to define one ormore second transport block portions, wherein the second encodingconfiguration is a same configuration as the first encodingconfiguration. For example, any of the above components may includeencoding and decoding algorithms for one or more different wirelesscommunication protocols, which may be applied to the successfullydecoded transport block portions in the manner described above accordingto the non-modified-data encoding relay mode 109 to re-encode them forsending to the receiver (or destination) node in the sidelink assistedcommunication configuration discussed above.

At 1106, method 1100 includes mapping, at the relay node, the one ormore second transport block portions to the resource allocation. Forexample, in an aspect, the relay UE 104 b may operate one or anycombination of transceiver 1302, processor 1312, memory 1316, modem1340, or relay multi-link communication component 121 to the one or moresecond transport block portions to the resource allocation.

At 1108, method 1100 includes replacing, at the relay node,unsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions with blank resources in the resource allocation. For example,any of the above components may execute rules associated with thenon-modified-data encoding relay mode 109 to perform the mapping orresource allocations as discussed above in FIGS. 8 and 9.

At 1110, method 1100 includes transmitting, from the relay node, the oneor more second transport block portions on a second link according tothe resource allocation. For example, in an aspect, the relay UE 104 bmay operate one or any combination of antennas 1365, RF front end 1388,transceiver 1302, processor 1312, memory 1316, modem 1340, or relaymulti-link communication component 121 to transmit the one or moresecond transport block portions, according to the resource allocation,for example as wireless signals.

In some implementations of method 1100, the encoding at 1104 of thesuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions according to the second encoding configuration comprisesencoding according to at least one of a second redundancy version, asecond modulation and coding scheme, a second resource allocation, or asecond rank that is the same as a corresponding one of at least one of afirst redundancy version, a first modulation and coding scheme, a firstresource allocation, or a first rank of the first encodingconfiguration.

In some implementations, method 1100 further includes determining that areference signal symbol in the transport block only overlaps with theunsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions, and skipping inclusion of the reference signal in thetransmitting of the one or more second transport block portions based onthe reference signal only overlapping with the unsuccessfully decodedones of the plurality of first transport block portions.

In some implementations, method 1100 further includes determining that areference signal symbol in the transport block only overlaps with theunsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions, and wherein transmitting the one or more second transportblock portions further includes transmitting the reference signalaccording to a muting rule or a muting indication and based on thereference signal only overlapping with the unsuccessfully decoded onesof the plurality of first transport block portions.

In some implementations, method 1100 further includes determining that areference signal symbol in the transport block overlaps with theunsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions and also overlaps with at least one of the successfully decodedones of the plurality of first transport block portions, and whereintransmitting the one or more second transport block portions furtherincludes transmitting the reference signal based on the reference signaloverlapping with the at least one of the successfully decoded ones ofthe plurality of first transport block portions.

In some implementations of method 1100, the transmitting at 1110 of theone or more second transport block portions comprises a downlinktransmission transmitted via a sidelink. In other implementations, thetransmitting at 1110 of the one or more second transport block portionscomprises an uplink transmission transmitted via an access link.

In some implementations of method 1000, the plurality of first transportblock portions and the one or more second transport block portions arecode block groups.

Referring to FIG. 12, an example method 1200 of wireless communicationmay be performed by a receiver node, such as the sideline-assistedmulti-link UE 104, which may include one or more components as discussedin FIG. 1, 4, or 13, and which may operate in conjunction with the relayUE 104 b communicating according to the modified-data encoding relaymode 107 or the non-modified-data encoding relay mode 109 as discussedabove with regard to FIGS. 5-9.

At 1202, method 1200 includes receiving, via an access link, one or morefirst transport block portions of a first transport block. For example,in an aspect, the sideline-assisted multi-link UE 104 or a modem orprocessor, receiver chain component, and/or memory thereof may beexecuted to receive one or more first transport block portions of afirst transport block from a base station, such as from receivedwireless signals.

At 1204, method 1200 includes receiving, from a sidelink, one or moresecond transport block portions of the first transport block from arelay node, wherein the one or more second transport block portions aresuccessfully decoded ones of the one or more first transport blockportions, wherein the one or more second transport block portions have asame encoding configuration or a different encoding configuration ascompared to an encoding configuration of the one or more first transportblock portions. For example, in an aspect, the sideline-assistedmulti-link UE 104 or multi-link communication component, a modem,processor, receiver chain component, and/or memory thereof may beexecuted to receive one or more first transport block portions of afirst transport block from a base station, such as from receivedwireless signals.

At 1206, method 1200 includes soft combining the one or more firsttransport block portions and the one or more second transport blockportions to define a soft combined transport block. For example, in anaspect, the sideline-assisted multi-link UE 104 or multi-linkcommunication component, a modem, processor, receiver chain component,and/or memory thereof may be executed to soft combining the one or morefirst transport block portions and the one or more second transportblock portions to define a soft combined transport block. For example,any of the above components may execute one of a plurality of differentsoft combining algorithms that operably combine different copies of thesame data in order to enhance the accuracy of the signal or data.

In an implementation, the soft combing at 1206 is performed before orafter demodulating the one or more first transport block portions andthe one or more second transport block portions. For example, in anaspect, the sideline-assisted multi-link UE 104 or multi-linkcommunication component, a modem, processor, receiver chain component,and/or memory thereof may be executed to perform the soft combiningbefore or after demodulating the one or more first transport blockportions and the one or more second transport block portions.

In an implementation where the one or more second transport blockportions have the different encoding configuration, method 1200 mayfurther include receiving control information to indicate a part of thesecond encoding configuration different from the first encodingconfiguration, and decoding the one or more second transport blockportions based on the second encoding configuration.

In an implementation of method 1200, the receiver node comprises a userequipment.

In another implementation of method 1200, the receiver node comprises abase station.

Referring to FIG. 13, one example of an implementation of UE 104,including relay UE 104 b and/or sidelink-assisted multi-link UE 104 a,may include a variety of components, some of which have already beendescribed above and are described further herein, including componentssuch as one or more processors 1312 and memory 1316 and transceiver 1302in communication via one or more buses 1344, which may operate inconjunction with modem 1340 and/or configuration component 198 forcommunicating sidelink capability information.

In an aspect, the one or more processors 1312 can include a modem 1340and/or can be part of the modem 1340 that uses one or more modemprocessors. Thus, the various functions related to configurationcomponent 198 may be included in modem 1340 and/or processors 1312 and,in an aspect, can be executed by a single processor, while in otheraspects, different ones of the functions may be executed by acombination of two or more different processors. For example, in anaspect, the one or more processors 1312 may include any one or anycombination of a modem processor, or a baseband processor, or a digitalsignal processor, or a transmit processor, or a receiver processor, or atransceiver processor associated with transceiver 1302. In otheraspects, some of the features of the one or more processors 1312 and/ormodem 1340 associated with configuration component 198 may be performedby transceiver 1302.

Also, memory 1316 may be configured to store data used herein and/orlocal versions of applications 1375 or communicating component 1342and/or one or more of its subcomponents being executed by at least oneprocessor 1312. Memory 1316 can include any type of computer-readablemedium usable by a computer or at least one processor 1312, such asrandom access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), tapes, magneticdiscs, optical discs, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, and anycombination thereof. In an aspect, for example, memory 1316 may be anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores one or morecomputer-executable codes defining configuration component 198 and/orone or more of its subcomponents, and/or data associated therewith, whenUE 104 is operating at least one processor 1312 to execute configurationcomponent 198 and/or one or more of its subcomponents.

Transceiver 1302 may include at least one receiver 1306 and at least onetransmitter 1308. Receiver 1306 may include hardware and/or softwareexecutable by a processor for receiving data, the code comprisinginstructions and being stored in a memory (e.g., computer-readablemedium). Receiver 1306 may be, for example, a radio frequency (RF)receiver. In an aspect, receiver 1306 may receive signals transmitted byat least one base station 102. Additionally, receiver 1306 may processsuch received signals, and also may obtain measurements of the signals,such as, but not limited to, Ec/Io, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR),reference signal received power (RSRP), received signal strengthindicator (RSSI), etc. Transmitter 1308 may include hardware and/orsoftware executable by a processor for transmitting data, the codecomprising instructions and being stored in a memory (e.g.,computer-readable medium). A suitable example of transmitter 1308 mayincluding, but is not limited to, an RF transmitter.

Moreover, in an aspect, UE 104 may include RF front end 1388, which mayoperate in communication with one or more antennas 1365 and transceiver1302 for receiving and transmitting radio transmissions, for example,wireless communications transmitted by at least one base station 102 orwireless transmissions transmitted by UE 104. The one or more antennas1365 may include one or more antenna panels and/or sub-arrays, such asmay be used for beamforming. RF front end 1388 may be connected to oneor more antennas 1365 and can include one or more low-noise amplifiers(LNAs) 1390, one or more switches 1392, one or more power amplifiers(PAs) 1398, and one or more filters 1396 for transmitting and receivingRF signals.

In an aspect, LNA 1390 can amplify a received signal at a desired outputlevel. In an aspect, each LNA 1390 may have a specified minimum andmaximum gain values. In an aspect, RF front end 1388 may use one or moreswitches 1392 to select a particular LNA 1390 and its specified gainvalue based on a desired gain value for a particular application.

Further, for example, one or more PA(s) 1398 may be used by RF front end1388 to amplify a signal for an RF output at a desired output powerlevel. In an aspect, each PA 1398 may have specified minimum and maximumgain values. In an aspect, RF front end 1388 may use one or moreswitches 1392 to select a particular PA 1398 and its specified gainvalue based on a desired gain value for a particular application.

Also, for example, one or more filters 1396 can be used by RF front end1388 to filter a received signal to obtain an input RF signal.Similarly, in an aspect, for example, a respective filter 1396 can beused to filter an output from a respective PA 1398 to produce an outputsignal for transmission. In an aspect, each filter 1396 can be connectedto a specific LNA 1390 and/or PA 1398. In an aspect, RF front end 1388can use one or more switches 1392 to select a transmit or receive pathusing a specified filter 1396, LNA 1390, and/or PA 1398, based on aconfiguration as specified by transceiver 1302 and/or processor 1312.

As such, transceiver 1302 may be configured to transmit and receivewireless signals through one or more antennas 1365 via RF front end1388. In an aspect, transceiver may be tuned to operate at specifiedfrequencies such that UE 104 can communicate with, for example, one ormore base stations 102 or one or more cells associated with one or morebase stations 102. In an aspect, for example, modem 1340 can configuretransceiver 1302 to operate at a specified frequency and power levelbased on the UE configuration of the UE 104 and the communicationprotocol used by modem 1340.

In an aspect, modem 1340 can be a multiband-multimode modem, which canprocess digital data and communicate with transceiver 1302 such that thedigital data is sent and received using transceiver 1302. In an aspect,modem 1340 can be multiband and be configured to support multiplefrequency bands for a specific communications protocol. In an aspect,modem 1340 can be multimode and be configured to support multipleoperating networks and communications protocols. In an aspect, modem1340 can control one or more components of UE 104 (e.g., RF front end1388, transceiver 1302) to enable transmission and/or reception ofsignals from the network based on a specified modem configuration. In anaspect, the modem configuration can be based on the mode of the modemand the frequency band in use. In another aspect, the modemconfiguration can be based on UE configuration information associatedwith UE 104 as provided by the network during cell selection and/or cellreselection.

In an aspect, the processor(s) 1312 may correspond to one or more of theprocessors described in connection with the UE in FIG. 4. Similarly, thememory 1316 may correspond to the memory described in connection withthe UE in FIG. 4.

Referring to FIG. 14, one example of an implementation of base station102 (e.g., a base station 102, 102 a, and/or 102 b, as described above)may include a variety of components, some of which have already beendescribed above, but including components such as one or more processors1412 and memory 1416 and transceiver 1402 in communication via one ormore buses 1444, which may operate in conjunction with modem 1440 andconfiguration component 199 for communicating sidelink capabilityinformation.

The transceiver 1402, receiver 1406, transmitter 1408, one or moreprocessors 1412, memory 1416, applications 1475, buses 1444, RF frontend 1488, LNAs 1490, switches 1492, filters 1496, PAs 1498, and one ormore antennas 1465 may be the same as or similar to the correspondingcomponents of UE 104, as described above, but configured or otherwiseprogrammed for base station operations as opposed to UE operations.

In an aspect, the processor(s) 1412 may correspond to one or more of theprocessors described in connection with the base station in FIG. 4.Similarly, the memory 1416 may correspond to the memory described inconnection with the base station in FIG. 4.

In the following, an overview of further examples of the presentinvention is provided:

In one example, a method of wireless communications by a relay node,includes attempting, at the relay node, to decode a plurality of firsttransport block portions of a transport block, wherein the plurality offirst transport block portions are received on a first link according toa first encoding configuration; encoding, at the relay node,successfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions according to a second encoding configuration to define one ormore second transport block portions corresponding to the transportblock, wherein the second encoding configuration is different from thefirst encoding configuration; and transmitting, from the relay node, theone or more second transport block portions on a second link accordingto the second encoding configuration.

One or more of the above examples can further include omittingunsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions from the one or more second transport block portions.

One or more of the above examples can further include mapping the one ormore second transport block portions to a second resource allocationdifferent from a first resource allocation of the plurality of firsttransport block portions.

One or more of the above examples can further include that the secondresource allocation includes less resource elements that the firstresource allocation.

One or more of the above examples can further include that mapping theone or more second transport block portions to a second resourceallocation includes shifting a part of the successfully decoded ones ofthe plurality of first transport block portions into resourcespreviously allocated to the unsuccessfully decoded ones of the pluralityof first transport block portions.

One or more of the above examples can further include encoding thesuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions according to the second encoding configuration comprisesencoding according to at least one of a second redundancy version, asecond modulation and coding scheme, or a second rank that is differentfrom a corresponding one of at least one of a first redundancy version,a first modulation and coding scheme, or a first rank of the firstencoding configuration.

One or more of the above examples can further include transmittingcontrol information to indicate a part of the second encodingconfiguration different from the first encoding configuration.

One or more of the above examples can further include transmitting theone or more second transport block portions comprises transmitting adownlink transmission, wherein the second link comprises a sidelink andthe first link comprises an access link.

One or more of the above examples can further include transmitting theone or more second transport block portions comprises transmitting anuplink transmission, wherein the second link comprises an access linkand the first link comprises a sidelink.

One or more of the above examples can further include the plurality offirst transport block portions and the one or more second transportblock portions are code block groups.

In another example, a method of wireless communications by a relay node,comprising: attempting, at the relay node, to decode a plurality offirst transport block portions of a transport block, wherein theplurality of first transport block portions are received in allocatedresources according to a first encoding configuration; encoding, at therelay node, successfully decoded ones of the plurality of firsttransport block portions according to a second encoding configuration todefine one or more second transport block portions, wherein the secondencoding configuration is a same configuration as the first encodingconfiguration; mapping, at the relay node, the one or more secondtransport block portions to the resource allocation; replacing, at therelay node, unsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of firsttransport block portions with blank resources in the resourceallocation; and transmitting, from the relay node, the one or moresecond transport block portions according to the resource allocation.

One or more of the above examples can further include encoding thesuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions according to the second encoding configuration comprisesencoding according to at least one of a second redundancy version, asecond modulation and coding scheme, a second resource allocation, or asecond rank that is the same as a corresponding one of at least one of afirst redundancy version, a first modulation and coding scheme, a firstresource allocation, or a first rank of the first encodingconfiguration.

One or more of the above examples can further include determining that areference signal symbol in the transport block only overlaps with theunsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions; and skipping inclusion of the reference signal in thetransmitting of the one or more second transport block portions based onthe reference signal only overlapping with the unsuccessfully decodedones of the plurality of first transport block portions.

One or more of the above examples can further include determining that areference signal symbol in the transport block only overlaps with theunsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions; and wherein transmitting the one or more second transportblock portions further includes transmitting the reference signalaccording to a muting rule or a muting indication and based on thereference signal only overlapping with the unsuccessfully decoded onesof the plurality of first transport block portions.

One or more of the above examples can further include determining that areference signal symbol in the transport block overlaps with theunsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions and also overlaps with at least one of the successfully decodedones of the plurality of first transport block portions; and whereintransmitting the one or more second transport block portions furtherincludes transmitting the reference signal based on the reference signaloverlapping with the at least one of the successfully decoded ones ofthe plurality of first transport block portions.

One or more of the above examples can further include transmitting theone or more second transport block portions comprises transmitting adownlink transmission, wherein the second link comprises a sidelink andthe first link comprises an access link.

One or more of the above examples can further include transmitting theone or more second transport block portions comprises transmitting anuplink transmission, wherein the second link comprises an access linkand the first link comprises a sidelink.

One or more of the above examples can further include that the pluralityof first transport block portions and the one or more second transportblock portions are code block groups.

In a further example, a method of wireless communication by a receivernode, comprising: receiving, via an access link, one or more firsttransport block portions of a first transport block; receiving, from asidelink, one or more second transport block portions of the firsttransport block from a relay node, wherein the one or more secondtransport block portions are successfully decoded ones of the one ormore first transport block portions, wherein the one or more secondtransport block portions have a second encoding configuration that is asame encoding configuration or a different encoding configuration as afirst encoding configuration of the one or more first transport blockportions; and soft combining the one or more first transport blockportions and the one or more second transport block portions to define asoft combined transport block.

One or more of the above examples can further include that the softcombing is performed before or after demodulating the one or more firsttransport block portions and the one or more second transport blockportions.

One or more of the above examples can further include that the one ormore second transport block portions have the different encodingconfiguration, and further comprising: receiving control information toindicate a part of the second encoding configuration different from thefirst encoding configuration; and decoding the one or more secondtransport block portions based on the second encoding configuration.

One or more of the above examples can further include that the receivernode comprises a user equipment or a base station.

Further examples include An apparatus for wireless communication,comprising: a memory configured to store instructions; and one or moreprocessors communicatively coupled with the memory, wherein the one ormore processors are configured to execute the instructions to performthe operations of one or more of the methods described herein.

Additional examples include a receiver node device for wirelesscommunication, comprising means for performing the operations of one ormore of the methods described herein.

Further examples include a non-transitory computer-readable mediumstoring instructions executable by one or more processors to perform theoperations of one or more of the methods described herein.

It is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of blocks in theprocesses/flowcharts disclosed is an illustration of example approaches.Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific orderor hierarchy of blocks in the processes/flowcharts may be rearranged.Further, some blocks may be combined or omitted. The accompanying methodclaims present elements of the various blocks in a sample order, and arenot meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in theart to practice the various aspects described herein. Variousmodifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilledin the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied toother aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to theaspects shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistentwith the language claims, wherein reference to an element in thesingular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specificallyso stated, but rather “one or more.” The word “exemplary” is used hereinto mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspectdescribed herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed aspreferred or advantageous over other aspects. Unless specifically statedotherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. Combinations such as“at least one of A, B, or C,” “one or more of A, B, or C,” “at least oneof A, B, and C,” “one or more of A, B, and C,” and “A, B, C, or anycombination thereof” include any combination of A, B, and/or C, and mayinclude multiples of A, multiples of B, or multiples of C. Specifically,combinations such as “at least one of A, B, or C,” “one or more of A, B,or C,” “at least one of A, B, and C,” “one or more of A, B, and C,” and“A, B, C, or any combination thereof” may be A only, B only, C only, Aand B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C, where any such combinationsmay contain one or more member or members of A, B, or C. All structuraland functional equivalents to the elements of the various aspectsdescribed throughout this disclosure that are known or later come to beknown to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporatedherein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims.Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to thepublic regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited inthe claims. The words “module,” “mechanism,” “element,” “device,” andthe like may not be a substitute for the word “means.” As such, no claimelement is to be construed as a means plus function unless the elementis expressly recited using the phrase “means for.”

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of wireless communications by a relaynode, comprising: attempting, at the relay node, to decode a pluralityof first transport block portions of a transport block, wherein theplurality of first transport block portions are received on a first linkaccording to a first encoding configuration; encoding, at the relaynode, successfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transportblock portions according to a second encoding configuration to defineone or more second transport block portions corresponding to thetransport block, wherein the second encoding configuration is differentfrom the first encoding configuration; and transmitting, from the relaynode, the one or more second transport block portions on a second linkand according to the second encoding configuration.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: omitting unsuccessfully decoded ones of theplurality of first transport block portions from the one or more secondtransport block portions.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:mapping the one or more second transport block portions to a secondresource allocation different from a first resource allocation of theplurality of first transport block portions.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein the second resource allocation includes less resource elementsthat the first resource allocation.
 5. The method of claim 3, whereinmapping the one or more second transport block portions to a secondresource allocation includes shifting a part of the successfully decodedones of the plurality of first transport block portions into resourcespreviously allocated to the unsuccessfully decoded ones of the pluralityof first transport block portions.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinencoding the successfully decoded ones of the plurality of firsttransport block portions according to the second encoding configurationcomprises encoding according to at least one of a second redundancyversion, a second modulation and coding scheme, or a second rank that isdifferent from a corresponding one of at least one of a first redundancyversion, a first modulation and coding scheme, or a first rank of thefirst encoding configuration.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: transmitting control information to indicate a part of thesecond encoding configuration different from the first encodingconfiguration.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the one ormore second transport block portions comprises transmitting a downlinktransmission, wherein the second link comprises a sidelink and the firstlink comprises an access link.
 9. The method of claim 1, whereintransmitting the one or more second transport block portions comprisestransmitting an uplink transmission, wherein the second link comprisesan access link and the first link comprises a sidelink.
 10. The methodof claim 1, wherein the plurality of first transport block portions andthe one or more second transport block portions are code block groups.11. A method of wireless communications by a relay node, comprising:attempting, at the relay node, to decode a plurality of first transportblock portions of a transport block, wherein the plurality of firsttransport block portions are received on a first link in allocatedresources according to a first encoding configuration; encoding, at therelay node, successfully decoded ones of the plurality of firsttransport block portions according to a second encoding configuration todefine one or more second transport block portions, wherein the secondencoding configuration is a same configuration as the first encodingconfiguration; mapping, at the relay node, the one or more secondtransport block portions to the resource allocation; replacing, at therelay node, unsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of firsttransport block portions with blank resources in the resourceallocation; and transmitting, from the relay node, the one or moresecond transport block portions on a second link according to theresource allocation.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein encoding thesuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions according to the second encoding configuration comprisesencoding according to at least one of a second redundancy version, asecond modulation and coding scheme, a second resource allocation, or asecond rank that is the same as a corresponding one of at least one of afirst redundancy version, a first modulation and coding scheme, a firstresource allocation, or a first rank of the first encodingconfiguration.
 13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:determining that a reference signal symbol in the transport block onlyoverlaps with the unsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of firsttransport block portions; and skipping inclusion of the reference signalin the transmitting of the one or more second transport block portionsbased on the reference signal only overlapping with the unsuccessfullydecoded ones of the plurality of first transport block portions.
 14. Themethod of claim 11, further comprising: determining that a referencesignal symbol in the transport block only overlaps with theunsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions; and wherein transmitting the one or more second transportblock portions further includes transmitting the reference signalaccording to a muting rule or a muting indication and based on thereference signal only overlapping with the unsuccessfully decoded onesof the plurality of first transport block portions.
 15. The method ofclaim 11, further comprising: determining that a reference signal symbolin the transport block overlaps with the unsuccessfully decoded ones ofthe plurality of first transport block portions and also overlaps withat least one of the successfully decoded ones of the plurality of firsttransport block portions; and wherein transmitting the one or moresecond transport block portions further includes transmitting thereference signal based on the reference signal overlapping with the atleast one of the successfully decoded ones of the plurality of firsttransport block portions.
 16. The method of claim 11, whereintransmitting the one or more second transport block portions comprisestransmitting a downlink transmission, wherein the second link comprisesa sidelink and the first link comprises an access link.
 17. The methodof claim 11, wherein transmitting the one or more second transport blockportions comprises transmitting an uplink transmission, wherein thesecond link comprises an access link and the first link comprises asidelink.
 18. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of firsttransport block portions and the one or more second transport blockportions are code block groups.
 19. A relay node for wirelesscommunication, comprising: a memory configured to store instructions;and at least one processor communicatively coupled with the memory,wherein the at least one processor is configured to: attempt, at therelay node, to decode a plurality of first transport block portions of atransport block, wherein the plurality of first transport block portionsare received on a first link according to a first encodingconfiguration; encode, at the relay node, successfully decoded ones ofthe plurality of first transport block portions according to a secondencoding configuration to define one or more second transport blockportions corresponding to the transport block, wherein the secondencoding configuration is different from the first encodingconfiguration; and transmit, from the relay node, the one or more secondtransport block portions on a second link and according to the secondencoding configuration.
 20. The relay node of claim 19, wherein the atleast one processor is further configured to: omit unsuccessfullydecoded ones of the plurality of first transport block portions from theone or more second transport block portions.
 21. The relay node of claim20, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: map theone or more second transport block portions to a second resourceallocation different from a first resource allocation of the pluralityof first transport block portions.
 22. The relay node of claim 21,wherein the second resource allocation includes less resource elementsthat the first resource allocation.
 23. The relay node of claim 21,wherein to map the one or more second transport block portions to asecond resource allocation, the at least one processor is furtherconfigured to shift a part of the successfully decoded ones of theplurality of first transport block portions into resources previouslyallocated to the unsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of firsttransport block portions.
 24. The relay node of claim 19, wherein toencode the successfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transportblock portions according to the second encoding configuration, the atleast one processor is further configured to encode according to atleast one of a second redundancy version, a second modulation and codingscheme, or a second rank that is different from a corresponding one ofat least one of a first redundancy version, a first modulation andcoding scheme, or a first rank of the first encoding configuration. 25.The relay node of claim 19, wherein the at least one processor isfurther configured to: transmit control information to indicate a partof the second encoding configuration different from the first encodingconfiguration.
 26. A relay node for wireless communication, comprising:a memory configured to store instructions; and at least one processorcommunicatively coupled with the memory, wherein the at least oneprocessor is configured to: attempt, at the relay node, to decode aplurality of first transport block portions of a transport block,wherein the plurality of first transport block portions are received ona first link in allocated resources according to a first encodingconfiguration; encode, at the relay node, successfully decoded ones ofthe plurality of first transport block portions according to a secondencoding configuration to define one or more second transport blockportions, wherein the second encoding configuration is a sameconfiguration as the first encoding configuration; map, at the relaynode, the one or more second transport block portions to the resourceallocation; replace, at the relay node, unsuccessfully decoded ones ofthe plurality of first transport block portions with blank resources inthe resource allocation; and transmit, from the relay node, the one ormore second transport block portions on a second link according to theresource allocation.
 27. The relay node of claim 26, wherein to encodethe successfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions according to the second encoding configuration, the at leastone processor is further configured to encode according to at least oneof a second redundancy version, a second modulation and coding scheme, asecond resource allocation, or a second rank that is the same as acorresponding one of at least one of a first redundancy version, a firstmodulation and coding scheme, a first resource allocation, or a firstrank of the first encoding configuration.
 28. The relay node of claim26, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:determine that a reference signal symbol in the transport block onlyoverlaps with the unsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of firsttransport block portions; and skip inclusion of the reference signal inthe transmitting of the one or more second transport block portionsbased on the reference signal only overlapping with the unsuccessfullydecoded ones of the plurality of first transport block portions.
 29. Therelay node of claim 26, wherein the at least one processor is furtherconfigured to: determine that a reference signal symbol in the transportblock only overlaps with the unsuccessfully decoded ones of theplurality of first transport block portions; and wherein to transmit theone or more second transport block portions, the at least one processoris further configured to transmit the reference signal according to amuting rule or a muting indication and based on the reference signalonly overlapping with the unsuccessfully decoded ones of the pluralityof first transport block portions.
 30. The relay node of claim 26,wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: determinethat a reference signal symbol in the transport block overlaps with theunsuccessfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transport blockportions and also overlaps with at least one of the successfully decodedones of the plurality of first transport block portions; and wherein totransmitting the one or more second transport block portions, the atleast one processor is further configured to transmit the referencesignal based on the reference signal overlapping with the at least oneof the successfully decoded ones of the plurality of first transportblock portions.